"Why're You Tryin' To Ban Booze, America?" or "MA HOOCH!"

[Seil]

First off, what is Whitehouse.gov?

WhiteHouse.gov is the official web site for the White House and President Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States. This site is a source for information about the President, White House news and policies, White House history, and the federal government.

For those who don't know, the US government started a website for citizens to file petitions for discussion if another people felt the same way about an issue. Predictably, the main issue petitioned was on the legalization of marijuana. This was the initial petition and the government's response.

Secondly, what the devil is Seil on about?

According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health, tobacco and alcohol are both associated with addiction and numerous serious mental and physical health issues.

Given the extreme number of fatalities yearly as a direct result of alcohol or tobacco usage (tobacco accounts for 90% of lung cancer cases in the US; alcohol results in over 22,000 deaths annually), as well as the Obama administration's approach to reducing the potential harm caused by marijuana, we the people believe the time has come to create and enforce anti-tobacco and anti-alcohol laws similar to those currently enforced relating to marijuana.

Third, why bring this up if we've had a hojillion discussions on grass already? Well, this is a great way to bring attention to the site, it's an interesting political WHAT THE POOP ARE YOU ALL DOING YOU'RE GETTING RID OF ALL THE BEERS! Don't you like liquor? Think of all liquor has done for you! Remember the dark times? Prohibition? Remember that?

Also, a friends comment reads like so:

It is the wrong subject for this style of argument by the legalization movement. Our society has already dealt with prohibition and it was a terrible disaster. I realize this could be an inference they are trying to make, but it is very weak point as history has already settled the matter. If the legalization movement is serious, they should focus on the massive taxation benefits to be gained by the society.

[Betty Elms]

I for one say full steam ahead whitehouse.gov petitioners, you crazy nonsensical bastards, as long as this results in the revitalized popularity of the Charleston and me getting to dress as a flapper all the time.

It'll be all THIS IS JUST THE BEE'S KNEES LET'S HEAD ON DOWN TO THE SPEAKEASY AND HAVE A HOTSTY-TOTSY OLD TIME and no amount of bloodshed in vicious gang wars could ever make that not worth it.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

It failed the first time. It will fail horribly again.

This is either just a concept or the Obama Admins each failed their history courses.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Bags being a rum runner

[Osterbaum]

BEE'S KNEES
I always thought it was like "beez sneeze" or something.

[rpgdemon]

I always thought it was like "beez sneeze" or something.

What? That doesn't even make any sense.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Neither does bees knees to be fair.

[CABAL49]

I have been waiting for this my whole life. Time for NC to return to its noble roots of moonshine.

[Karrrrrrrrrrrresche]

Maybe it's a roundabout way of supporting the legalization of marijuana.
Once everyone's gone up and rambled about how Alcohol doesn't hurt anybody he can turn around and say "Oh! Well if that's how you feel we should probably make pot legal too while we're at it right?"

[Ecks]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Next you'll tell me they're taking away our right to assembly and stage protest.

Wait a minute...

[Krylo]

xZCypUOH8js

[TDK]

I could get pretty behind this 'going back to 1920s prohibition era' stuff. I love the 20s. :3

Then again, I also know how to brew alcohol, so I wouldn't be missing out on much. :P

[Marc v4.0]

It failed the first time. It will fail horribly again.

This is either just a concept or the Obama Admins each failed their history courses.

That would imply the Obama Admins are the only ones trying to make history repeat.

On that note, it looks like I need to get my Thompson down off the wall and start cleaning it.

[rpgdemon]

Neither does bees knees to be fair.

Yes it does.

[Kerensky287]

Bees do not have knees, nor do they sneeze. Neither makes sense.

Also, I feel that it's important for them to note that restricting alcohol and tobacco has never, ever, ever worked in the past. If people want it, they'll get it.

It seems to me that there'd be more of a stink if there was any chance this was gonna get off the ground though. What's Superbowl Sunday without a cold one, amirite?

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Yes it does.

How?

[TDK]

Also imagine you turn twenty-one on the day this bill is put into effect.

You'd wait twenty-one years to drink only for it to be taken away at the last second.

You'd be pissed.

[Azisien]

Bees do not have knees, nor do they sneeze. Neither makes sense.

Well, they do have something analogous to knees at least. I don't think they have a sneezing behaviour at all!

[rpgdemon]

How?

Bees' Knees are pretty cool, and real things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_knees

[Shyria Dracnoir]

Also imagine you turn twenty-one on the day this bill is put into effect.

You'd wait twenty-one years to drink only for it to be taken away at the last second.

You'd be pissed.

http://www.whitehousehistory.org/whha_history/white-house-stories/media/images/1814-burning.jpg

[Professor Smarmiarty]

Bees' Knees are pretty cool, and real things.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_knees

That is in no way a knee or in anyway related to the saying "bees knees"

[Marc v4.0]

Holy who gives a fuck about bees, Batman!

[Oron]

Maybe it's a roundabout way of supporting the legalization of marijuana.
Once everyone's gone up and rambled about how Alcohol doesn't hurt anybody he can turn around and say "Oh! Well if that's how you feel we should probably make pot legal too while we're at it right?"

Read the last line of the response petition (https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/respond-marijuana-legalization-petition-argument-doesnt-also-apply-alcohol/bBqPSqpS).

Edit: Guess my phone ate the last line of my post.

Meant to post "Read the last line of the response petition to marijuana legalization. It basically gives that argument (if alcohol's legal despite all the bad it can do, why is pot illegal?), so I could also see whoever made this petition doing that."

[Kerensky287]

Meant to post "Read the last line of the response petition to marijuana legalization. It basically gives that argument (if alcohol's legal despite all the bad it can do, why is pot illegal?), so I could also see whoever made this petition doing that."

Honestly, trying to legalize marijuana by pointing out hypocricy and unfair treatment seemed like a good idea for a second, but then I remembered what country we're talking about.

Satire and hyperbole only ever work when you're talking about DEM COMMUNISS, or the TERRURISS, and that's because people are taught to hate them already.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Next you'll tell me they're taking away our right to assembly and stage protest.

Wait a minute...

So you know they're going to try that eventually right?

[POS Industries]

So you know they're going to try that eventually right?
Ha ha ha.

"Going to," he says.

"Eventually," he says.

What marvelous jest. (http://www.google.com/search?q=arrests+occupy&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a)

[Kyanbu The Legend]

That's Texas. Nothing makes sense in Texas. I'm talking about everywhere in the US.

[POS Industries]

Oakland, Rochester, Nashville, Denver, Des Moines, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, and New York City are in Texas now?

[TDK]

Yes.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Okay so it's not just Texas. But my statment still stands.

[POS Industries]

Okay so it's not just Texas. But my statment still stands.
That the thing that is currently happening all over America is not happening in America?

But that it will eventually?

[TDK]

He's right. Texas is contagious, you know.

[POS Industries]

This is what we get for messing with it!

[Seil]

Holy who gives a fuck about bees, Batman!

cbyhRnu0UQg

[Amake]

The bee's knees (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=bee%27s+knees&allowed_in_frame=0) originally was just as much nonsense as you'd expect, apparently. Though when you think about it, when they're loaded with pollen the bee's knees are the sweetest part of the bee by far so by a complete coincidence it kind of makes sense.

So I guess it's time for another prohibition era in nine years or so. If your lawmakers are clever they'll take a leaf from Sweden's Bratt era (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motboken), which was kind of like the prohibition era except it lasted 38 years and - this part is interesting - violent crime dropped like a fucking rock. Simply by limiting the amount of strong liquor a person could buy rather than banning everything.

[Premmy]

We're currently IN a prohibition era. Why don't people get this? e are literally in a dark time of drug-related gang violence and economic upheaval. We are, right now, not on the verge of, or near, but right now, living out the 20's.

[TDK]

Because alcohol isn't banned...?

[CABAL49]

Because alcohol isn't banned...?

He was referring to the Drug War, and how it increased gang violence like how banning alcohol did.

[Premmy]

Prohibition means a lot of things. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prohibition_%28disambiguation%29)

[TDK]

Oh. I've never heard it used outside of the context of the 20's alcohol prohibition. My bad.

[Magus]

We're currently IN a prohibition era. Why don't people get this? e are literally in a dark time of drug-related gang violence and economic upheaval. We are, right now, not on the verge of, or near, but right now, living out the 20's.

Actually the '20s was a super wonderful time for all, except minorities and the poor. That was the era of 2000-2008, wherein it was a super wonderful time for all except minorities and terrorists and the poor again.

We are living out the '30s, when alcohol was still illegal but for some reason nobody was making any money off of it anymore and eating one's shoes suddenly looked like an appetizing dinner prospect.

Maybe it's a roundabout way of supporting the legalization of marijuana.
Once everyone's gone up and rambled about how Alcohol doesn't hurt anybody he can turn around and say "Oh! Well if that's how you feel we should probably make pot legal too while we're at it right?"

I kind of thought this when I read it, since there's basically no way to explain how alcohol is somehow healthier or less dangerous than marijuana, when in fact its use probably leads to far more deaths via drunk driving. Not that some people don't smoke pot and then proceed to drive to their death, but I believe the massive preponderance of people who use it are way too tired to find their way out of their house and into their car. Also, they don't tend to stab or shoot or otherwise murder each other like people who are drunk sometimes tend to do.

Also imagine you turn twenty-one on the day this bill is put into effect.

You'd wait twenty-one years to drink only for it to be taken away at the last second.

You'd be pissed.

I've tend to find that most people who drink a lot after the age of 21 were probably drinking quite a bit before the age of 21, for many years, starting in their late teens. It seems like if you actually bothered to wait until 21 to drink any alcohol, it kind of doesn't seem like much of a big deal. For example, I never drank any alcohol until I turned 21. I have since proceeded not to drink any since then, either. It just doesn't seem to have much of a draw to me personally, other than I guess to get everybody else drunk.

I think it's one of those things you have to get into at a younger age to really be into it. Like smoking, how many people start smoking at age 18? Very few, I would suspect. How many smoke a lot if they didn't start until age 18? Probably, again, very few.

[TDK]

There ARE people whose desire to not break the law is greater than their desire to do drugs.

Also, for alcohol its the principle of the thing. Even if you'd BEEN drinking before 21, you can BUY it after you're 21.

[Magus]

There ARE people whose desire to not break the law is greater than their desire to do drugs.

Also, for alcohol its the principle of the thing. Even if you'd BEEN drinking before 21, you can BUY it after you're 21.

Yeah but how many people are so moralistic they don't want to break laws which, for lack of any real enforcement, especially regarding underage drinking, seem fairly arbitrary, that they don't also have accompanying morals that probably prevent them from drinking in the first place, anyway? Some few people, I guess...

Also I was just speaking from personal experience, on a tangential topic. I wasn't trying to start an argument.